How careerSHOUT! started their web page design journey

Company name

careerSHOUT!

Overview

Our official blurb:

careerSHOUT! is a new and innovative approach to career management. Through a comprehensive, structured methodology, easy to use tools and value-added services, careerSHOUT! provides it’s customers with an effective means of taking control of their career.

The story behind the blurb:

careerSHOUT! has been formed by former corporate Human Resources professionals who have seen the nonsense that goes on in the corporate world and how it impacts everyday folk. We realized that people were being held accountable for playing a game that most didn't realize that they were playing and many didn't know the rules for.

Our approach has been to take the overwhelming task of career management and break it down into smaller steps. We then take those steps and break them down into smaller activities. As a result, our customers have an easy to follow path to follow that helps them make it through the challenging process of finding work and being successful in their jobs.

Our central message is a metaphor that compares a career to a journey. We help folks understand where they are, where they are going and how to get there.

We anticipate a long term relationship with the winning designer. We will have future needs and want to work with someone who knows us, our tastes and our products well.

BTW, we're new to this process. But in reading through other projects, we understand that feedback is essential. As professionals, we are all about giving people feedback - so we can guarantee you will know what we think - good, bad and indifferent.

We hope all of the above helps. We want you to have fun with this project. Please don't make us look like everyone else - help us establish a unique identity.

Tell us a bit about who you are and the people you reach

Our website needs to appeal to 2 major groups - people who purchase the service for themselves and people who purchase it for someone else. We believe that our customers will fall into the falling groups:

1) College/University students who have graduated or will be graduating shortly. They are heavily focussed on finding their first job and may not have adequate support from their educational institutions. They will want a product that is easy to understand, fun and tells them what to do.

2) Parents of above. These folks have invested a great deal of time and money in educating their kids and want to make sure that they find work. They will want a product that is reliable and will give their kids a boost in a competitive job environment.

3) People currently looking for work. They will purchase the product to get organized and gain advantage. Most likely they will be in the 3 to 15 years of experience and may be from a variety of industries and job functions. Most of them will be looking for work that will be in the business world - as opposed to folks like Doctor's, Lawyers or other specialized fields. If they spend money, it will be because they feel the investment is worth it. They will be looking for professionalism and stability.

4) Friends of the unemployed. They may wish to purchase a membership as a gift to a friend who needs some help. They will want to know that our service can help their friends.

Requirements

We want to appeal to people who are interested in taking control of their career journey (using the previously mentioned metaphor). Our product and service expands beyond just the job search phase and we want customers who are focussed on having a sustainable career - not just finding their next job.

We want careerSHOUT! to convey the following emotions to folks:

1) Positive energy. They may come to us frightened and overwhelmed, but we want them to hang out in a space that is re-assuring and energizing.

2) Structure. Our business is built on following a model. We give structure to a process that most folks handle hap-hazardly. We want to make sure that the website conveys a sense of structure - of moving people from point A to point B to point C and so on.

3) Fun. This is a serious topic, but we want folks to have a good time doing it. We will be introducing a mascot/helper - called a careerGRUNT - that will lighten things up and hopefully put a smile on people's faces.

4) Professional. We have corporate backgrounds and expertise. We want to make sure that we look like a stable, reputable organizations. Since our website is our calling card, it needs to convey a serious image.

5) Accessible. Clean, easy to use and easy on the eyes. We don't want it to be cluttered and difficult to navigate.

We would like the website design to incorporate the "your career is a journey" metaphor. Postcards, plane tickets, maps, travel guides, roadside attractions - all of these are of interest.

Number of pages

3

Page descriptions

We have need for 3 page types:

1) Homepage. This is our main marketing tool and needs to be an attention grabber - the page that captures people's attention and helps them understand what we offer and why we can help them. We would like it to have movement, excitement and clearly impart a sense of purpose. It should also have a clear call to action - getting folks to sign-up for our service. We want a clear navigation bar as well as an easy log-in for returning members.

2) Content pages. These is the format/layout for additional pages that we will use for other pages such as "About us", "FAQs", etc. It needs to have an easy to follow style that we can adapt to multiple needs. It will have text and images as appropriate.

3) Member's pages. This is the main page for our customers. From this page, they will access the tools and services that they will be using every time they visit the website. We have been calling it a dashboard and that's fairly accurate - easy to read information and access to the tools that they will be using. Attractive and easy to use. I have included a very early, very crude mock-up of what we've been thinking about. We are not wed to this design, but it can be a starting place. Once again, the journey metaphor needs to be powerful here. Think about dashboard (auto or plane), trip notes (maps, guidebooks) or vacation trinkets (postcards, souveniers, etc). Be fun and creative. This is the page that our members will utilize most frequently, so it must be accessible.

If you need/want additional information, please ask. We will do our best to be responsive.